Croatoan- Complete
by Jay
Summary: The whole Croatoan, story rolled into 1 fic. It also has reviews, and a shameless plug for my new website!


**INDEX:******

**CHAPTER 1******

**CHAPTER 2******

**CHAPTER 3******

**REVIEWS******

**HITS******

**SHAMELESS PLUG**   


Derek settled into the chair in front of the computer. He had deiced to do it now. If he didn't he might never get up the nerve. He began...   
I saw my dead brother yesterday. 

Someone sent me a QuickTime and there on the screen, large as life, was Adam. Is it just a cruel prank? The date on the video is only 3 days old and I want to believe it's real and that it's him. My heart wants to even though my mind screams at me to accept the fact that he died almost 3 years ago...

It was then that he got an idea. This story felt too personal to just type out. He moved the long unused microphone, and set it to record. 

DEREK: In the summer of 1997 my brother, Adam created an internet web site to investigate the truth between strange and unusual events. Being a man of compassion, and realizing it was the only way he was going to get the five hundred bucks he loaned me. He hired me as his head investigator. My name is Derek Barnes, the job he'd given me was insanely simple, he'd give me a job, I'd go seek it out. It's not like I actually cared about the assignments, but it was a job, and, ya know, ...I liked hanging out with my brother. I was actually having fun with it until...until that night that I walked into that roadside bar. I didn't know it at the time but that was going to change my life forever...

I was doing a story on showgirls that were apparently bursting into flames mid lap dance. This was more his kind of story. Better than the 'Giant Squid: Fact of Fiction' thing Adam had me working on before that. I still hadn't got my land legs back. 

So I headed out to the dive strip club to investigate. The bar smelled of beer smoke and urine. It was full of old horny guys smoking cigars, and shouting lewd things. I was trying to track down someone, and finally found "Crystal," A Waitress/Dancer, the only one who seemed to not want to come on to me. Not that I wouldn't have enjoyed that, but I had to get to work, Adam had been acting weird lately, and for some reason I felt a strong need to be with him, twin thing, I guess. 

Now I was chasing down Crystal. 

"But you don't understand what I need." Not the best choice of words I guess. 

"Oh, I've heard that a lot." He looked as if she had, dressed in a way too tight tube top and leather miniskirt. 

"No, I'm not like the other guys who hang out in this dump!" 

She gave me a hard look. 

"Whoa, did I say dump-" 

"What do you want?" 

"Well, I've heard these rumors, about these dancers who burst into flames, you know just POOF in the middle of a lap dance. Have you heard anything like that? " 

She looked she looked over her shoulder. "Maybe, why do you want to know about it?" 

I smiled, she knew. I handed her a card. 

She read out loud. "OccultReaserch.com? What are you a computer geek?" 

"No, that's my brother, Adam, I'm just a surfer trying to keep corn flakes on the table. My name's Derek." 

I held out my hand. She shook it. 

"Wow," She looked me up and down. "I had a roommate that used to...'date' a surfer. Never had one myself..." 

I grinned despite myself. "You don't say..." My cell phone rang. "I...just...hold that thought okay?"   
Derek stepped over behind an old arcade game, so he was out of Crystal's earshot.   
"This had better be life or death." 

It was Adam, he sounded frantic. 

"Derek, you got to get over here. There is some...something..." He said it all in a single breath. 

"Whoa, Adam, slow down..." 

"Derek, I need you to come over here!" 

"What, now?" 

"Yes, now!" 

I looked back at Crystal. She was smiling at me. "Okay, Adam, you're really breaking up here okay, I'll come by when I'm done. Bye." I shut the phone. 

"He's your brother...he'll understand." I said into the a mirror on the wall. I adjusted my hair. All of a sudden the mirror shook, and I heard a growl... A split second later my reflection was replaced with a grotesque head moving back and forth at the speed of light. It was over as quick as it had started. I chalked it up of my guiltiness about bailing on Adam. I knew I should go to him, I felt him calling to me. But I still turned, around to talk to Crystal, instead of helping my frantic, crazy brother... 

"You wanna do this thing or not?" Crystal called. 

"Uh...Yeah...you bet..."   
* * *   
It was storming when I finished with Crystal a couple hours later. I learned a lot Adam would be happy. Would have been happy. 

I talked to myself, trying to remember her exact words. I walked up the path to his big-ass Victorian house. Our grandmother had left quit a bit of money, Adam kept our old house when mom moved to to North Carolina, and I am currently house-sitting a condo down by the beach. I knocked on Adams door. There was no response. 

"COME ON MAN, OPEN UP!" I knocked harder. Nothing still. I thought that maybe he had gone to sleep. But the light to his upstairs bathroom was on. "ADAAAAAM! COME ON, MAN, YOU HAVE NO IDEA WHAT I STUMBLED INTO TONIGHT!" Still nothing. "I'M GONNA USE THE KEY DON'T SHOOT ME!" I got the key that he hid under the air conditioner. 

The second I opened the door I knew something was wrong. For one the place smelled, awful. Two, the lights were off. Adam always had a fear of the dark, since we were kids and our cousin locked him in the closet. I ran up the steps, and almost slipped. There was water pouring down them. 

"ADAM?" I flipped the light switch. Nothing happened. "YOU NEED YOUR PAY YOUR ELECTRIC BILL MAN!" I got out a lighter so I could at least see in front of me. I was almost to the top. "GOT THIS PLACE REEKS!" 

When I got to the bathroom there was nothing but candlelight, hundreds of candles. The shower curtain was drawn, and the tub was full of water and overflowing. 

"This isn't even close to funny Adam." I walked over and opened the shower curtain expecting Adam to jump out and yell "BOO!" or something, it wasn't much like him but I was the only possibility... 

Instead I found Adam. Under the ice cold water staring straight up at me. "Adam?" I said knowing he could no longer hear me. No longer hear anything.... I reached in and grabbed him pulling him to me. Like...like my feelings could bring him back. I cried on his ice cold shoulder. Sobbing his name. 

* * * 

DEREK: So here I am. Nearly 3 years later. If I'd had been smart I would've shut the whole thing down and walked away. But... Something seemed so unfinished. So...I changed the name to FreakyLinks and took on a partner (smiling) Still not sure that that was the right thing to do....

I was looking at Jason through the lens of the digital camcorder. We were going over the plan again. 

"Okay, so you know that you're supposed to do right?" 

"Yeah," Jason nodded "I'm gonna go to the front of the barn and watch for someone to come up unexpectedly." 

"And?" 

"And you're gonna slip around the back and do your thing." He said 

"Now, are you SURE you can handle this?" 

"Come on D," He calls me that sometimes --long story short: my name starts with a D. "When have I ever let you down?" 

I just looked at him. 

"...This week?" 

"All right just shoot me doing the opening crawl and we'll edit the rest of the stuff out later." 

I handed him the camera. I got in front of it and got ready to do the crawl. 

He gave me the signal. 

"Hey, I'm Derek Barns, and me and my partner Jason-" 

He turned the camera around to get a shot of him. "Hi, how you doin?" He looked back at me. Remembering I pay him, he turned it back at me. "...Sorry." 

"Okay so we're here looking for the head of Chief Osceola. The story goes, if you believe that kinda stuff that after Chief Osceola died in 1838 his head was cut off from his body and secretly stolen by a Doctor named Frederick Weedon. Most people assumed that the head was later lost in a New York medical school fire of 1866 but that was never proven since remains were never found. One publication claims that the head was cursed and that although it caused the fire, it wasn't consumed by it and instead continues to bring misery upon whoever owns it." 

We shut off the camera and got into our positions. I turned it back on it and aimed it at Jason. He gave me the thumbs up. 

"So as always the FreakyLinks team is determined to find the truth, and find the answers to the questions that have no answers. And take you with us." 

Problem was, we weren't the only ones there. A couple of vehicles sat right next to the fake saloon where the head was supposed to be. I had Jason stand look out and I headed in to find the head before the cleaning crew or whoever they were found it first.   


Problem was, it wasn't a cleaning crew, it was Gunter Mahlberg (the vertically challenged Donald Trump of the occult collecting world). That little bastard had beaten me to the punch somehow and was one step ahead of me. I saw the head all right; I saw it sitting in a glass jar right next to Gunter as he forked over cash for it. Well, Gunter didn't really scare me but the big guys around him did. There was no way I was getting anything out of there. Deciding discretion was the better part of valor I sneaked the hell out of there and Jason and I beat a hasty retreat. 

That's where the video ended. Lan wasn't satisfied. 

"Wait...then what happened?" 

"Well...they caught us..." I looked at Jason, then at Lan. "And they killed us." 

She looked confused until me and Jason burst out laughing. 

"Ha ha," (Sarcasm) you should start a comedy act. You know it's not easy always having to be the one left behind!" 

"Well, I'll take you anywhere you wanna go sweet thang." Jason said. 

Lan walked away frustrated. 

"What?" Jason asked. 

I followed Lan. "Laan!" I walked over to her. "You know we can't compromise that big brain of yours in the field. You're what keeps this place going. You're the Sunshine to my darkness, the sugar in my coffee you know that!" 

"Really?" 

"Oh absativley!" 

I put my arm around her. 

"In fact I need you to pull some of those tricks of yours, and go into that severed head footage and see if you can figure out how they made the eyes move like that, can ya do that for me?" 

"Sure, I can." 

"Thanks, you're the best." 

She went over to the computer. Jason walked up to me. I frowned. 

"What's wrong?" 

"Our new subscribers are down 30% this week. That's the 3rd time this week Malhberg scooped us!" 

"God, I hate that little cockroach!" He threw a dart at the picture of him on the wall. "Well, how bad is it?" 

"Let me put it this way. If we were a horse..." I made a gun hand under Jason's chin. "They'd have shot us by now." 

I walked to the fridge, tapped the picture of me and Adam like I always did, and went to grab a coke but Jason grabbed right before me. 

"Excuse me," He smiled as he opened and took a sip of MY coke. 

I went to join Lan; Jason talked as I walked. 

"Do you remember Sissy Bargo?" 

"Who?" 

"Sissy Bargo she used to hang out at the mall with Squirrel and the Cuban chick with 6 toes?" 

"Yeah, why?" 

"Well, I'm doing this phosphate run down in Cook county. And I stop to get a bite to eat and guess who my waitress is?" 

"Sissy Bargo?" 

"In the flesh. And oh that was a lot of flesh. Girl got fat! Double chin, you can even see her ass from the front." 

"So?" 

"Well, it was really turning my on. That stuff is scaring me." 

"Wow, can I get back to work now?" 

"Yeah." 

I checked my e-mail. Spring-Heel Jack informed me that I had 87 new messages. 

"Wow," I said to Lan. "Looks like the Wack Pack's been busy." I looked at the picture of Adam and his girlfriend; well she used to be his fiance, Chloe. "I'm starting to think I shoulda left the website the way Adam left it." 

"What, a boring gathering of occult novelties?" Lan asked "I mean OccultReaserch.com? Could he have come up with a more boring name?" 

"That was my brother, long on logic and short and inspiration." 

I skimmed through the e-mail, throwing out the spam, stupid 'The End is Coming' crap, and finally found one form Lazarus. It was bold. And what could I say dark things fascinate me. So I clicked on it. 

It was a QuickTime movie. A woman walked out of a bank. A man turned to follow her. It was Adam, my dead brother. Or maybe we was not so dead anymore... 

"Lan?" 

"Yeah?" She called from the other side of the room. "Could you take a look at this?" 

I played it for her. 

"Oh that's sick Derek what are you now stalking women at the ATM machine?" 

"That's not me." 

She scoffed. "Yeah. What do you mean it's not you?" 

"I don't own a bankcard, and I've never been to that place in my life." 

"So what is this a video of Adam before he died?" 

"That's what I thought but..." 

"But?" 

But according to the time code that footage was taken the day before yesterday..." 

**CHAPTER 2******

We must have ran that video a hundred times in silence. Until Lan finally broke the silence.   
"You're a 100% sure that's not you?" 

"It's Adam." I pointed to something on Adam's face. "See that scar over his left eyebrow? That happened when we were kids. I pushed him bike and it took six stitches to close the cut. Somebody's messing with my head." 

"Well, then," She said pecking at the keys. "That means this is some serious visual effects here. Like Hollywood level stuff. If I could find the password to get into this protected website." 

I pushed her hands away from the keys, and typed in the password. 

"What's that?" 

"It was a made-up name Adam and I used to call each other, you know Twinspeak?" 

"Twinspeak?" 

"Adam and I used to know what each other were thinking. We'd show up at the same restraints, finish each other's sentences, sometimes I'd pick up the phone before it would even ring and he'd be on the other end." 

"That's spooky." 

"Yeah." 

I hit ENTER and a program took over the screen. 

Letters began to type themselves. **CROATOAN.******

"What is that?" Lan asked 

_____________________________________   
Derek: CROATOAN, I had no idea what it meant. Hell, I didn't even know if it was English. So I diced the best--

VOICE: Hey what's up man?

He stopped the recording. 

"Oh hey." It was Jason. He had scared the crap out of him. 

"Oh, you're doing the Adam thing, huh?" 

"Yeah, " 

"Oh, my bad I didn't know," 

"It's no problem." 

"You mind if I hang out for a while?" 

I hesitated. 

"Listen, man, you just do your thing and I'll sit here quite as a mouse." 

"Okay." 

He turned it back on.

DEREK: So I didn't know-

JASON: I'm like a piece of furniture, a chair, or a table, a piece of tupperware...

He turned it off again. Jason shut up. He turned it on and continued.

DEREK: So they say that life is for the living. And I agree. But here I was confronted with a piece of myself, my own flesh and blood. That I had buried 3 years ago. So I didn't know what to with these feelings. So I went to the one person that I know loves Adam as much as I do...did.

I found her at her usual gym, kicking the crap out of some guy. He spat something at her in Spanish. 

"Stop whining, it's not manly." She said taking off her gloves. 

"Maybe, you should pick on someone you own size." I yelled at her. 

"D-Derek?" 

"What's with the fighting?" 

"Some people do aerobics, I fight it's a great way of reliving stress." Chloe said joining me. 

"Yeah along with some teeth and a couple million brain cells." 

"So what about you? Still chasing things that go 'bump' in the night." 

"Yeah, can you believe I make a living at that now?" 

"Adam never saw a dime when he was at it." 

"Well, he wasn't in it for the money was he?" 

"What?" I asked, She was stareing at me. Just studding my face. 

"Forgot...how much you two look alike." 

"Chloe...have you ever heard the word Croatoan?" 

She looked at me them grabbed her gym bag and headed for the door. 

"You know it don't you?" I asked blocking her exit. 

She got in my face. "Derek, stay away. For both our sakes, just STAY AWAY!" 

"No, Chloe, I know it's hard for you to see me." She went to leave again. "I wouldn't have come here if it wasn't important!" 

She agreed to come over later so I could show her. 

* * *   
"I got this in an e-mail." I a print out Lan made of Adam. 

She looked at it for a long time. "THAT'S ADAM." I yelled. 

"Look, if this is a joke, it's not-" 

"No, it's not a joke. Lan checked this there is no sing that this has been tampered with." 

"What are you saying, Derek? That Adams' not dead?" 

"I know it sounds crazy-" 

"IT IS CRAZY, DEREK! One of those internet freaks is messing with you, Derek! You should know that!" 

"The night that Adam died, I had a vision. Of something...horrible! I...I can't explain it!" 

"You...you think this has something to do with Adam?" 

"I don't know." 

She shook her head.   


* * * 

"Okay, Adam was researching the Roanoke Colony. The legend goes that in 1587   
English explorer John White brought over a group of settlers to America. He then left them there, including his young granddaughter, Virginia Dare and went back to England for more supplies. When he returned to the settlement four years later everyone was missing. There were no signs of a struggle, no graves, no anything. One hundred and fifteen men, woman, and children had just disappeared without a trace. The only clue was the word Croatoan carved into a tree. John White thought it referred to an island just west of the settlement but for some reason he never went there to check." 

Chloe told me that Adam believed the story was incomplete and that John White didn't tell everything he knew. Adam thought White had discovered something so horrible that he left the colony and never tried to find out what happened and he believed it had something to do with John White's granddaughter, Virginia Dare. It kinda makes sense because in the years following the disappearance, Virginia became a prominent figure in many different stories and legends. Local Indian tribes said she was an evil spirit, a shape shifter and refused to go near the old colony. Adam believed these fears had a basis in fact. He partially based this theory on a fragment of a diary entry by John White in which Virginia is described as "...something fearsum." 

Looking thought his notes we found two good pieces of info. Weird hieroglyphs, and the name V. Elsing. 

"I don't know why but someone's playing games with my mind. And I'm gonna find out who." 

"How?" 

"...Start at the beginning."   
* * *   
I'd left Adam's house basically as it had been when he'd died. Taken his computer, photo albums, notebooks, Chloe moved her stuff out, but left the furniture basically the same. Me and Chloe hadn't been in the house in over 2 years, though I visited it most nights in my dreams. 

Nightmares really. A reenactment of that happened. Sometimes, it was different. Sometimes, I don't let my hormones be my guide and went to help Adam. Not often though, and even those dreams make me wake in a cold sweat, remembering that I could have helped him... 

"Keep the camera running." I told Chloe and we entered. We walked around for a while. Split up and searched for anything, clues to his frantic words, something on Croatoan. But we found nothing. I was ready to pack up and leave. 

I found Chloe standing in the bedroom looking dazed. I stepped in front of her making her jump. 

"Chloe? You okay?" 

"Yeah, I'm fine," She replied, not looking fine at all. 

"I'll go check the bathroom." She said 

"No," I said stopping her from entering. "I'll do it. Go down and wait for me." 

I took the camera and entered the bathroom. The room was dirty, dingy and dank. The floor {{was?}} messy and water damaged. I only looked through the camera's screen, using it as a sort of shield, I guess. I approached the tub. The curtain was drawn the was it had been that night. I reached out and pulled it out of the way...it was empty. Of course it was. I then walked over to the mirror it was open a bit, I opened it all the way and looked inside. There were a few bottles of stuff still inside. I closed it.   


**FLASH******

_ADAM STOOD THERE LOOKING INTO THE MIRROR A CELL PHONE IN HAND. HE LOOKED AT IT, NO ONE WAS ON THE OTHER END. HE CLOSED, THEN DROPPED IT. THERE WAS A GROWL FROM OUTSIDE, THEY WERE ALMOST HERE... HE LOOKED AT THE TUB, FILLING WITH WATER... HE PULLED A RAZORBLADE FORM THE CABINET. HE LOOKED IT, THEN AT HIMSELF IN THE MIRROR, HE THOUGHT OF DEREK...CHLOE.... HE HEARD ANOTHER GROWL.... NOW OR NEVER. HE REMEMBERED ENSIGN'S WORDS... THINGS WORSE THAT DEATH.... THE RAZOR FELL TO THE FLOOR BLOODY. HE GOT IN THE TUB IT BEGAN TO OVERFLOW... BUT THAT WAS NOT A MATTER NOW. ALL HE THOUGHT OF IN HIS FINAL MOMENTS WERE HIS BROTHER, HIS TRUE LOVE, AND THE BEAST OUTSIDE...._****

**FLASH**   
****   
**** ****

I was back. My hallucination over. I deiced to get out of that damn house as soon a possible. When I reached Chloe, she had that dazed look again. 

"Hey," She said "You okay?" 

"...Yeah," I said, distracted. "Why?" 

"I saw you face in the window, you looked upset." 

I looked at her, "I wasn't in that window.... I didn't go near that window..." 

We looked at each other for a while. 

"It was a mistake bringing you here." I grabbed my coat and bag form the porch. "It was like you said a hoax." 

"But Derek..." 

"But nothing, I'll deal with it." 

"Deal with what?" 

"With whatever or whoever is doing this to me." 

I grabbed her hand and led her to the car. 

"Look you can't shut me out of this!" 

"Listen, this is my problem, I'll deal with it." 

"DEREK LET GOT OF ME!" She knocked my hand off her arm. "YOU ARE NOT THE ONLY ONE ADAM CALLED THE NIGHT HE DIED!" 

I stopped and turned around to look at her. "Adam was changing. I begged him to shut down the website-to walk away but he wouldn't...or he couldn't. He...he called me that night. He sounded terrified, he sounded...on the edge of something... And I...I hung up on him. So you can't shut me out of this. You're not the only one carrying his death around inside of you." 

My cell phone rang. 

"Hello?" 

"Hey it's me" It was Lan. "I tracked down V. Elsing. He used to be a patent at the Woodrow Psychiatric Hospital in Baltimore." 

"Yeah, where is he now?" 

V or Vince Elsing was a skinny short man. And he looked as if he had been hit by a bus. 

"He was first picked up for disturbing the peace." The guard told us as we watched him through a 2-way mirror. 

"What'd he do?" I asked 

"He was caught shooting out store windows. When the police came he was just sitting on the curb waiting to be picked up." 

"What happened to his face?" 

"Oh, he went crazy last night, attacked a couple of my guards. It took three men just to restrain him. Which is weird because he couldn't weigh more that 160 pounds soaking wet." 

"I need to talk to him." 

"Oh no. It's way past visiting hours, the doctors would have my ass if they knew I even let you in here." 

"Please," I handed a 50 "It's important." 

He took the money. "Five minutes." He gave the money back. 

"Thanks." 

He let me in. The man seemed to not notice me until the door was closed. 

"They're not human you know..." He said harshly in a low, raspy voice. 

"Who?" 

"Who you're looking for." 

"And who exactly am I looking for?" I asked smiling, at the crazy man's rantings. 

"Well, that's the $6.00 question ain't it?" He gave me a harsh smile. "Tell me something my man. You ever wake up in the middle of the night thinking someone was in your house? You know, hear a sound you couldn't quite make out... So you get up. Turn the whole damn place upside down because you gotta make sure that everything's still safe and sound. Just the way you left it. That ever happen to you, Mr. Barnes?" 

At first it startled me that he knew my name or at least my last name, but if he knew Adam, the twin thing might tip him of that we're somehow related. 

"Yeah." 

"Well, suppose, all those times you thought you heard a footstep or saw something flash out of the corner of your eye, you really did?" 

"Like what?" 

"Like...something different. Something....fearsome.... They feed on it, the fear. Like...sharks to blood. And the only way to stay safe is to push that fear back down into your belly. Because the second you let that fear rise up into your soul, that's when they come."   
"What have you seen?" 

"Just a flash. But that was enough, though! More than enough..." 

He banged his hand on the table for no apparent reason. As if he was feeling intense pain. It was then that I noticed something on his arm. The glyphs for Adam's notebook. Tattooed on his arm. I must have been staring because he then yelled- 

"ARE YOU LISTING TO ME BOY!?! You only see what you mind can handle!" 

"I don't understand." 

"Nether did your brother...not at first..." 

"How did you know Adam?!?" 

"It doesn't matter... 'Cause they'll be coming soon...reeeeeal soon." 

The gaurd said out time was up, the man, vince said nothing as I left, his smug-almost happy look said it all. Me and Chloe left the hospital.   


"He kept talking about 'them'." I told her as we walked. "Saying that 'they' were coming." 

"Who?" 

"I have no idea." 

We reached the car. 

"It gets crazier, I checked his admission date, it was the same night Adam died." 

Then I saw her. It was the woman from the footage. The one Adam was following. I ran after her, pushing Chloe out of my way. 

"Derek!" 

I ignored her. And followed the woman into a nearby office building but she was gone. Chloe came into the door soon after I did. 

"Derek?" 

"It was her." 

"Who?" 

"The woman from the ATM footage, the one Adam was chasing." 

"Where did she go?" 

"I don't know..."   
  
* * *   
A candle burned. Flickered in the wind from the open window. The tub over flowed. Adam sank into the cold, bloody water. He saw Derek pulling him up out of the water, holding him close. He was unable to respond. 

I woke with a start. I thought I heard a creak, or a footstep. 'You ever wake up in the middle of the night thinking someone was in your house? You know hear a sound you couldn't quite make out...' 

I grabbed a baseball bat I kept by my bed. I held the bat ready to strike. I walked around the whole house. Then went outside. I thought I saw a figure move behind the trees. 

"Adam?" 

I felt someone was behind me and turned around nearly bashing Lan's head in. 

"What are you doing here?" 

"Insomnia, I thought I'd get some work on done on the Osceola screen grabs!" 

"I have a better idea..."   


Lan and I watched the video of me at Adam's house. 

"So what exactly are we looking for?" 

"Exactly? No idea." 

"How's Chloe?" 

"Very angry..." I pointed to a corner of the bathroom. "Can we zoom in close here?" 

"Must be strange seeing her...being that she almost married your brother and all." 

"Just get me tighter right here." 

She zoomed in on the corner. 

"She's pretty." She said off handley. 

"STOP!" 

"What?" 

I pointed to something on the screen, a place where the wallpaper was coming off something was behind it... 

"Right there." 

"What the hell is that..." 

But I had already ran off the go pick up Chloe.   


We got there as soon as we could, and found the piece of wallpaper. 

It was dark, and we had nothing but flashlights. 

"There it is..." 

I grabbed and pulled paper away. 

It was the glyphs. Painted under the paper. I tore more away, more glyphs... 

"A message." 

"From who?" 

"From Adam..."   


CHAPTER 3 

"Oh my God..." Chloe exclaimed.   
We had pulled away all the wallpaper, all the carpets; they were covered in   
the glyphs.   


"It's like some kind of language..."   


"It doesn't make sense," I yelled, turning the camera on the word CROATAON   
which was painted over some of the glyphs. "Every wall, every room in the   
house is covered with these things!" 

I turned the camera on the center of the room where they all met in a big   
swirl. "It's like he was trying to protect something." 

"Why?" 

All of a sudden, the bedpost against the window blew down making a loud thump   
on the hard wood floor. 

We yelled in unison. 

"Just the wind." I said breathing deeply. I chuckled nervously. "You okay?"   
I asked. 

"Yeah..." She replied shakily 

She went over to close the window while I got a few more shots of the room. 

"Derek," She said not taking her eyes off the window. 

"Yeah?" 

"There's someone outside." 

I ran over to look. It was that woman. Virginia! 

"We gotta get out of here." We turned to stare into the face of Virginia. 

She grabbed Chloe and body slammed her against the window. Then she turned on   
me. She threw a punch, but I blocked it. She grabbed my arm, turned me around   
and threw me against the far wall. 

"Know who you really are!" I yelled. 

She grabbed me by arm with incredible strength and pulled me over to the   
center of the big swirl and began using my fist to punch though the floor. It   
felt like she broke all my fingers. Eventually she broke though, and my hand   
went through I felt a box on the bottom. 

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!" Someone yelled, the pain was so bad, I didn't   
bother to look up. 

Someone knocked Virginia off me and began to fight her. 

"IT'S INSIDE!" I vaguely registered the voice as Vince's as I grabbed the box   
from beneath the fist-sized hole I'd made. Opened it and looked inside. 

I pulled a gold necklace with a pendant from the box. The sides had the same   
glyphs as, well you know. 

I looked at Virginia, who had pinned Vince to the floor and was looking at   
him. 

"The power belongs to him now! There's nothing you can do!" Vince spat. 

I held the necklace out like I would a cross to a vampire. 

"Go to hell, Virginia." 

She got up ran with lightning fast speed right at me. At the last second she   
altered her course and went straight out the window. 

  
***   
Vince laughed as we walked down Adam's porch steps. He spat (literally) and   
wiped his bloody lip. I sat Chloe down on a step. I ran over to Vince who was   
propped on a nearby bush smoking a cigarette. I grabbed him by his uniform (a   
clue to how he got out I guess). 

"I WANT ANSWERS, AND I WANT 'EM NOW!" 

"It's the website," He said letting his smoke blow in my face. "It's   
stirring 'em up making 'em nervous. You keep pushing this and your gonna end   
up just like you brother..." 

"You mean dead?" 

"Well, the there's a lot of things worse then being dead." He smiled and took   
a drag from his cigarette. 

I walked over and took the box form Chloe. I opened it and held the necklace   
up in front of Vince. 

"What ever happened in there had something to do with this." I looked down at   
the pendant; it was gold and a bit tarnished. 

"Now tell me what did this have to do with my brotherâ€™s death..." 

I looked up and Vince was gone, no where to be found. 

***   
Lan was as usual typing on the PC when I got home. 

"Oh hey," she said getting up from the desk. I've been calling you all night   
what happened..." She noticed the cast on my hand. "What happened?" 

I hugged her. 

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you." 

"Well, this might making you feel better," She said, showing me the headline   
on the paper. 

"It looks like that head really was cursed." 

'Occult Hunter Burned in Strange Gas Explosion' the picture showed the little   
bastard in a wheelchair with bandages all over, what skin was showing had   
terrible burns. 

"The little munchkin got burned. Bad." 

Just then Jason came through the door carrying a backpack. 

"Hey Brother and Sisters!" 

"Where have you been?" Lan asked. 

"Well, I felt bad about that little bug getting away with the chief's head so   
I, tracked him down and..." 

He pulled a green, formaldehyde smelling head in a zip lock bag form his   
pack. 

"Looks like our luck has changed." He said smiling broadly. 

"Should you tell him or should I?" Lan asked 

"What?" He asked 

DEREK: So that's my story exactly as it happened. I've kept his death buried   
inside me for almost 3 years. But now I need answers. I realize now that, in   
the end, Adam had been terrified by something so terrible it drove him off   
the edge of sanity. Adam was my brother. My twin. He was my best friend. And   
there hasn't been minute since he died that I have not thought about him. Or   
felt that I have failed him. In the mean time I'm going to post everything on   
the website. And I'm going to use FreakyLinks to help others solve their   
problems. To find answers in a world overflowing with questions. That's the   
only way I'll be able to find my own peace... Barnes out.   


He clicked off the recording. Looked at the picture of Adam still on the   
computer. **ADAM!** He picked the phone. 

"Hello? Adam?" Silence no dial tone, silence. "ADAM!?!" 

"Adam?"   
  
  


**REVIEWS:******

**Chapter 1******

**Ganbit's Girl******

Very good!****

**anonymous******

it's very nice....very well written but i think you need a beta reader... there were a lot of typos****

**Chapter 1 (Revised)******

**Sarah Lightheart******

Great!!!!!!****

**Chapter 2******

**Sarah Lightheart (Singhed Review)******

Awsome!!!!!!!!!!!!!!****

**Chapter 3**

**Sahrah Lightheart (Singhed Review)******

Kewl!!!!****

**RaVeN******

WOW!! Good story!! Even though it's not original, it's still a extremely good account of what happened in the actual series. They should really make a FL book series....But that's another story!! I LOVED UR STORY(or fox's story??) BUT I LOVED UR NOVELIZATION!!!I am definately looking forward to seeing more works from you. You definately have a way w/ words, hon. GOOD JOB!!****

**Hits (as of 2/13/01)**

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Part 1.5   
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Part 2   
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Part 3   
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**SHAMELESS PLUG**

Check out my new site at www.creepygeeks.cjb.net   
If it's stupid and has no point. It's there. 


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